Globular Springtails

Inkie14

Inkie14

Fifth Instar
Does anyone raise/sell Globular springtails of any species? They are so cute and wanna get my hands on some!

 
I remember hearing from a few people in the past that they are very difficult to culture. They are certainly a fascinating group though! :)

 
Look in your yard or moist areas such as forests (if you have those in California.). Globular springtails are common here in North Carolina.

I think I had these before and they were easy to raise in a net cage with substrate and a few pieces of bark. They loved cantaloupe.

http://bugguide.net/node/view/161178/bgpage

 
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I have these tiny white globular springtails in a few of my cages, they came from some rotten wood that I did not cook. They like carrots, especially when they are rotten. I plan on moving them to their own cage soon.

 
I have these tiny white globular springtails in a few of my cages, they came from some rotten wood that I did not cook. They like carrots, especially when they are rotten. I plan on moving them to their own cage soon.

 
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I've found globular springtails in shredded bark and leaf litter in San Francisco. The area it was found was underneath the canopy of some very large pine trees and never dries out and there's always terrestrial amphipods around just under the surface. The springtails were around 1 mm and orange-brown with spots.

 
OMG these are the little beasties I've been trying to identify for years! I find them occasionally crawling on and in my hermit crab's shells but couldn't quite place what they were. I always figured it was some sort of booklice and I never worried about it hurting the crabs, but I have always been curious. That shape is unmistakable. Thank you! :)

 
Globular springtails have a fascinating courtship ritual as well. Here is a link to the best YouTube video that I could find that documents this (watch from 4:06 and 7:32).

BBC has a much higher quality video of this behavior, but I can't find it online. It is in the first episode of the "Life in the Undergrowth" series and can be found on iTunes.

 
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